50

B drove a goodly flock of geese,And met with Farmer A;Said Farmer A, “How much apieceFor this lot did you pay?”Said B, “I paid for all I driveJust six pounds and a crown,And I am selling all but fiveAt the next market town.If fifteen pence a head I chargeBeyond the price I paid,I shall secure a sum as largeAs he who sold all made.”

B bought 25 geese at 5s. each, and proposed to sell 20 of them at 6s. 3d.

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Thecharade—

When second held firstFor best or for worst,I thought myself happy to win her.But what could I sayWhen the very next dayShe gave me the whole for my dinner?

is solved byHerring.

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In thelines—

The bees’ blithe vernal love-songs softly hum,Blending so sweetly with the restful air;The noiseless, deep-laced twilight shadows come,And well I ken the lass who meets me there—

the familiar adage, “Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home” is buried.

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The mutilationsin—

A little beast without its headBecomes a mighty beast instead:But then the subject of my riddleIs cut asunder in the middle;And nothing this division gains,Though unknown quantity remains.

areFox,ox,o,x.

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Mary sat withslatein hand,Writingtalesdramatic.Did shestealthe plots she planned?Negative emphatic!Staleto us thetalesmay be,But atleastthey’re new to she!

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The old Sanscrit problem, quoted by Longfellow in his “Kavanagh,”

Ten times the square root of a flock of geese, seeing the clouds collect, flew to the Manus lake. One-eighth of the whole flew from the edge of the water among a tangle of water lilies, and three couple were seen playing in the water. Tell me, my young girl with beautiful locks, what was the whole number of geese?

is solved by 144.

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Theenigma—

Six hundred and sixty so ordered may beThat if you divide the whole number by threeYou find the result will exactly expressThe half of six hundred and sixty, no less—

is solved by turning the sixes of 660 upside down, when it becomes 990, and satisfies the conditions.

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The press parody ranthus—

There was a young turkey, oh, bless her!It cost very little to dress her;Some breadcrumbs and thymeAbout Thanksgiving time,And they ate every bit from the dresser!

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She loses her head when she joins the brides,He joins them after tea;But both are swept by ruthless tidesAway on the western sea.

is solved byHebrides.

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If I have 91 bananas on my barrow, and find, when I have sold one quality at four a penny, and the other at three a penny, that in mixed lots at seven for twopence I should have made a penny more, I had 64 of inferior and 27 of better sort.

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The words in italics have the sameletters—

How does the sluggard’s garden grow?Whenratesare high, results are low.His borderstaresand bindweed spoil,No careful culturetearsthe soil;What weeds thatstareare all aliveWhereaster, pink, or rose should thrive.

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Correctly drawn results I yield,Varied, but welcome everywhere;But met with in the open fieldI’m banned if frequent, blest if rare.To this peculiar difference the clueIs called with much significance the cue.

is solved byCheque,check(the letter Q).

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The three towns buried in thelines—

Wait while I think the matter over,On holiday intent;The best I’ve seen is surely Dover,That pretty port of Kent.

areLeith,Thebes,St Ives.

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An Arab came to the river side,With a donkey bearing an obelisk;But he did not venture to ford the tide,For he had to good an ass to risk (asterisk).So he camped all night by that river side,Secure till the tide had ceased to swell,For he knew that whenever the donkey died,No other could be itsparallel(‖).

An Arab came to the river side,With a donkey bearing an obelisk;But he did not venture to ford the tide,For he had to good an ass to risk (asterisk).

So he camped all night by that river side,Secure till the tide had ceased to swell,For he knew that whenever the donkey died,No other could be itsparallel(‖).

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Thecharade—

What ho, my jollysecond!never say myfirstWhile my final you can find in Amsterdam.Think how a soundwholestays your hunger and your thirst,Deftly readjusting bread and meat and jam.

is solved byDietary(Amsterdam is on the River Y).

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The schoolboy who calculated that if he had made as many more runs at a cricket match, and half as many more, and two runs and a half, he would have made a score, scored seven runs.

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Theenigma—

Six letters spell the happy stateOf two in love made one.The same six letters tell the fateOf marriage ties undone.

is solved byUnited,untied.

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Theriddle—

My first’s a bond, my second’s weigh;These own the rest of all my lay;Busy my third; fourth like the pole,Whose opposite my fifth makes goal.

is solved byShackle,Tons,Ant,Arctic Expedition.

[Lieutenant Ernest H. Shackleton, R.N., leader of his South Polar Expedition.]

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For two months at thenetswe played,Ere we weresentto Lord’s;Alas! the score our champion madeWas what anestaffords.The crowd intensof thousands came,But took scant notice of the game.

The words in italics have the same letters.

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When Edwin and Angelina received these mutualMarconigrams—

“No fickle girl is bonnie to my mind.”

“In love inconstant I no pleasure find,”

he was at Lisbon and she was at Constantinople, as is indicated by the fact that the names of these places are “buried” in the messages.

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The MentalArithmetic—

Set down three figures in a line,Then multiply by four;This, if you use the proper sign,Makes five, and nothing more.

is solved by 1.25. In 11⁄4the figures are notin a line.

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The doublet by missing words, in which a grilse is turned into a salmon, is solvedthus—

To silver Tweed, or broader Spey,Thegrilseofsilver,sailergay,Guides on; thesailor moralsdrawsWhensalmonfollows Nature’s laws.

One letter is changed in each link.

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Theenigma—

I never move, and yet I runFrom place to place all day;Some loving swain, hot foot for fun,Sees Dora in my way—

is solved byRoad, which spells alsoDora.

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TheLetters—

HAATTCEUMSSSS

form the name of the StateMassachusetts.

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Theenigma—

Seven words in one of letters five we fix,Six English, and one Latin;No need to twist them, or afresh to mix,If puzzles you are pat in.

is solved byThere: the words are—there,here,her,the,ere,he,re.

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The full solution of the answer by anagram to the question, “Why is every angler ipso facto an Ananias?”is—

A liar, he spins gay fancies to a woven yarn.

Question and answer are spelt withthe same letters.

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The quaintriddle—

Peter WhiteWill never go right;Shall I tell you the reason why?Wherever he goes,He follows his nose,And that stands all awry!If this appendage had slanted more.Why would it serve a hole to bore?

is solved thus—It would beAskewer(a skewer!)

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“S” is the missing letter which occurs 55 times, and these are the fourlines:—

This season’s sunshine smiles, such storms as passAssist us to assess success or loss.Spring’s sweetness still possesses mossy grass,As summer’s tresses mass soft shades across.

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Theenigma—

Protected, open, plain,Without my tail I’m flat;I’m round, curtailed again;Again, you have me pat!

is solved byPatent,paten,pate,pat.

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Thelogogriph—

When all are gay this holds the sway,But take a letter out,That change of fare is ruling there,You see, without a doubt.Behead me twice; it is not niceTo have this in your skin;Lop head and tail, and find a nailOr tack to drive it in.Behead this right, and in your sightA little word you find;But you will never make it out,Though it is in your mind.

is solved byfeasting,fasting,sting,tin,in.

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Heprideshimself much on his skill,In many a burglary tried;But when heprisedopen the tillThere was only aspiderinside.

The words in italics are spelt with the same letters.

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Theenigma—

Three-fourths of me an act display,Three-fourths a bed for man;Three-fourths have legs that cannot stray,Three-fourths have legs that can.I have a back without a spine,An arm without a bone is mine.

is solved byCoat.

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Thecharade—

My first is the French for my second,My whole a narcotic is reckoned

is solved byLethe.

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The two palindrome words which can be formed from the letters of the sentence “Arrive to vote at it,” areRotatorandEvitative.

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Theenigma—

Sweet till I lose my head,Sweet-hearted then I show;Decapitate again, I spread,And cannot be below.Served so once more, I am not dead,But with fresh beauty glow.

is solved byClover,lover,over,ver(Latin for Spring).

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When Tommy undertook to put a shilling in his money-box if his father would give him as much as he had in his purse, and after repeating the process for three more days found himself penniless, he had elevenpence farthing in his purse at first.

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Two articles of English make,And three from foreign source.All these together you must takeWhere dramas run their course.

is solved byTheatres(tres, Latin forthree).

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When young Hopeful said, “If it were possible I should choose a life double as long,” and old Sobersides answered, “Yes, and you might turn it to better account if it was also begun old,” and the fact that their actual words “double as long,” and “also begun old,” were spelt withexactly the same letters, gave emphasis to the reply.

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Thecharade—

Lop head and tail, and you will findI have both tail and head.Or if for spirits you’ve a mindSet my tail first instead.Life, as “a vapour full of woes,”With many a darker page,My whole in picture will disclose,For “all the world’s a stage!”

Lop head and tail, and you will findI have both tail and head.Or if for spirits you’ve a mindSet my tail first instead.

Life, as “a vapour full of woes,”With many a darker page,My whole in picture will disclose,For “all the world’s a stage!”

is solved byDrama,ram,a dram.

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A glowingtranseptwindow, gracedWithpatternsthat true art has traced.

The words in italics have the same letters.

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The proof by anagram that the words of commendation “blessed in pain,” are properly applied to anæsthetics, is that exactly the same letters spellindispensable.

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The quotation buried in thesentence—

“What sin was it, sonny?” said an American negress to her lover, when she sat on his best hat, which was flattened. Wearily he heard her musical laugh, and arose to go. His hobby was botany, but not hers, for she was then a merry girl. “Bother the flowers! I would prefer this mellow pineapple, Leonidas,” she said; “I guess we Ethiopians just love fruit!”

is “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

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Theygrabthe dress with grip so keenThat half thegarbgives way:And home return with purses leanTobragof “bargain-day”!

The words in italics are spelt with the same four letters.

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Threeladieswent sailing out into the West,Out into the West as the sun sank low;Each thought as shesailedof the lad she loved bestFor they all hadideals, and each had a beau.......But seas will rise, and spirits will sink,And they all were too ill ofidealsto think,So theseladies sailedback moaning!

Threeladieswent sailing out into the West,Out into the West as the sun sank low;Each thought as shesailedof the lad she loved bestFor they all hadideals, and each had a beau.

......

But seas will rise, and spirits will sink,And they all were too ill ofidealsto think,So theseladies sailedback moaning!

The words in italics have the same six letters.

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Thecharade—

Lurking in riddles oft my first is found;My second should in ample stores abound,Or help to make the sweetest songster heard.Peculiar, and quite proper, is my third.My whole has found with England’s monarch grace,The verdant home of many a goodly race,

is solved byPunchestown.

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Theenigma—

Accent my head,An opening I appear;In other fashion saidI charm all far and near—

is solved byEntrance.

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The twosentences—

A lamp shines out for thee,Win me best by tears,

are anagrams ofThe Houses of ParliamentandWestminster Abbey.

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When on the Brighton beach an excited collie in pursuit of stones thrown into the sea, suggested the riddle, “What is the difference between that dog and a hungry man?” The appropriate answer was, “The one stops and shakes himself; the other chops and steaks himself!”

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The hidden animalin—

A part of me in rain,A part in hail must be,A part belongs to pain,A part in bones we see,A part in gleaming gold,A part in common copper.A part in peace behold,A part in any topper,Two parts are heard in sound,And in our finals found.

isRhinoceros.

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The smartenigma—

Men commonly say I am clever,Book-learning I never could boast;Yet I turn the leaves inside the cover,And when I am found I am lost.

is solved byA Fox.

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A sotis like atoast, or what is mostComparative, atoastis likea sot;For when their substances in liquor sinkBoth properly are said to be in drink.

The words in italics are spelt with the same letters, thetbeing repeated intoast.

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The pied proverb is “Fine words butter no parsnips.”

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The puzzleverse—

A wordy warfare waged with wit,In youth its joys none need descry;But where our elders take to itIts name points loss of dignity,

is solved byBadinage(bad in age).

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The hero’s name, hiddenin—

My first’s in garb, but not in dress;My next’s in praise, but not in bliss;My third’s in man, but not in miss;My fourth’s in we.My fifth’s in boar, but not in hog;My sixth’s in cat, but not in dog;My next’s in calm, but not in fog;My eighth’s in we.My ninth’s in rope, but not in twine;My tenth’s in light, but not in shine;My next’s in four, but not in nine;My twelfth’s in we.

My first’s in garb, but not in dress;My next’s in praise, but not in bliss;My third’s in man, but not in miss;My fourth’s in we.

My fifth’s in boar, but not in hog;My sixth’s in cat, but not in dog;My next’s in calm, but not in fog;My eighth’s in we.

My ninth’s in rope, but not in twine;My tenth’s in light, but not in shine;My next’s in four, but not in nine;My twelfth’s in we.

isGeneral Wolfe.

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Here is the sentence given with its appropriate and perfectanagram—

A defeat whose test is very sure.Sweet are the uses of adversity.

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The phonetic missing words are given initalics:—

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